Daily Archives: April 4, 2013

Arlan “Al” Francis Cummings, 75, of Glen St. Mary died on March 30, 2013 at Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville. Al was born in Bakersfield, Vermont on November 11, 1937 to the late Harold Vernon Cummings and Marchaline Isabell Britch Cummings. Al was a resident of Macclenny for 35 years after moving from California. He retired from the United States Navy after 21 years of dedicated service, including duty during the Vietnam War.

He also retired from the Florida Times-Union after 20 years in the maintenance department. Al attended St. Mary’s Catholic Church, and enjoyed fishing, bowling, watching television and building car and airplane models. He was preceded in death by his parents and one sister.

Marie W. Ailes, a former Macclenny resident, died March 12, 2013 in Orange Park. She was a Baptist and a member of the American Ballroom Dance Association and the Jacksonville Ballroom Dance Association. For many years she owned and operated the Maria Douglas School of Ballroom Dance, and she studied under many teachers including two in Havana, Cuba learning Latin Dance. She danced in exhibitions on television, in private clubs and in many public dance shows, contributing her time and money to fund raising for many charities. In later years she devoted her time to her large and scattered family.

I can’t say I’ll be terribly unhappy that 2012 is done and through. It has been an odd year to say the least. Here are some things that I won’t miss.

√ The presidential campaign. It actually started the day after Barack Obama was elected in 2008 but it really kicked into high gear this year and dominated the news all the way up to the November election and beyond, thanks again to Florida.

It was nasty as all get out and everybody wanted change of some sort or another.

If you believed the commercials all the candidates on both sides were liberal/radical socialists/ultra right wingers who wanted to raise taxes while at the same time turning their backs on our senior citizens, soldiers, gun owners, teachers, Medicare and Social Security recipients.

In the process both sides desperately preached “real change” as opposed to your run of the mill “changy change.” They spent in the neighborhood of 3 billion dollars and got – absolutely nothing. From the looks of this fiscal cliff debacle all they got for their billions is more of the same.

It’s a strange thing. In a circus, clowns make you laugh. The clowns on Capital Hill make you want to cry.